Senior Sarah Miller, a physics major and biology minor from Long Valley, N.J., has excelled in her academic and athletic endeavors at Colgate University. Her awards and distinctions are a testament to her outstanding performance as a student, athlete and community member.
Passionate about science, Miller has worked closely with faculty members on their research. At the beginning of April, Colgate awarded Miller the Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious national scholarship, for her work with Associate Professor of Physics Kenneth Segall.
Segall commented on how Miller contributed to and advanced his research project.
“[Miller] is a really motivated student who was a joy to work with. She worked on all facets of the research, including electronics instrumentation, cryogenics, data collection, data analysis and computer simulation,” Segall said. “She really pushed the research in the direction of using artificial neurons to study epilepsy. We had been thinking that it was possible, but she really worked to find possible network topologies to study and simulate, and to look at our data in terms of whether it was a seizure state or not. Her work is definitely publishable and will be presented at the Applied Superconductivity Conference this fall.”
Miller delved further into the research world through her senior thesis.
“My thesis is on using superconducting conducting circuits and Josephson junction neurons to model neural networks with applications to epilepsy,” Miller said.
Looking back on her four years at Colgate, Miller highlighted what she has learned both within and beyond the classroom.
“Academically, Colgate has taught me to dream big. It has also taught me the power of research, which has driven me to pursue a career where I can conduct biomedical research,” Miller said. “Socially, I have found true, genuine friendships at Colgate that will last me a lifetime.”
Alongside her studies, Miller played as a defenseman on the women’s lacrosse team for three years. The Patriot League named Miller to the Academic Honor Roll twice.
Miller also took on leadership roles within the team, becoming involved as a member of the leadership council, career services ambassador and inaugural executive board member of Athlete Ally, a student organization that champions LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion in sports.
While being a student-athlete is like a full-time job, Miller also found the time to get involved in other organizations on campus, joining Greek life and becoming a peer-tutor and teaching assistant in the physics department. Through her many activities, Miller has made meaningful connections.
“I cherish the relationships I have built with my friends, professors, faculty and the greater Colgate community.” Miller said. “Some of my favorite experiences have been the time spent with my teammates and friends. I loved the community we were able to build in my junior year living in the townhouses. I am looking forward to all of the senior activities coming up and I am so proud of our entire class.”
Miller has made her mark on campus and her influence does not stop here. Miller is the second Colgate recipient of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, a highly competitive award for students that show academic excellence and strong leadership potential, and will use this scholarship to pursue a full-time postgraduate degree at Cambridge University. Following her MPhil in clinical neuroscience at Cambridge, Miller will then pursue a PhD at Harvard University/the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in medical engineering and medical physics.
